The Relationship Between The Empathy And Implicit Aggression

Objective:To study the relationship between trait empathy and implicit aggression, and the effect of state empathy to implict aggression.Methods:The whole study is divided into two parts, Study1is a correlational research which using IRI and IAT to measure trait empathy and implicit aggression.76subjects completed the IRI questionnaire,IAT test procedures (evaluation and self)in order, then the data analysed; Study2is an experiment with2×2designed, the independent variables are gender and state empathy, as the dependent variable is implicit aggression.Using the self-made material and Boston’s scale to assess state empathy, and IAT to assess implicit aggression just like Study1.65participants were randomly divided into4parts,consists of2groups of boys and2groups of girls,after reading empathy materials and instructions of high and low status, they were asked to complete the Operation test scale and Empathy response scale, IAT test procedures were conducted at last, then analyse the data.Results:(1) All of the subjects have strong evaluation implicit aggression, evaluation implicit aggression of male is significantly higher than female; male’s emotional empathy is significantly lower than female’s, mainly reflected in empathic concern;(2) On the evaluation implicit aggression, the male’s cognitive empathy have significant negative correlation (r=-0.380,p<0.05) with it, mainly reflected in the imagination dimension (r=-0.376,p<0.05); female’s emotional empathy have significant negative correlation (r=-0.419,p<0.05)with it, mainly reflected in empathic concern dimension (r=-0.398,p<0.05), cognitive empathy have significant negative correlation (r=-0.439,p<0.01) with it, mainly reflected in perspective taking (r=-0.364,p<0.05);On self implicit aggression, the female’s cognitive empathy (r=-0.359, p<0.359) and empathic concern of emotional empathy (r=-0.359,p<0.05) have significant negative correlation with it.(3) The main effect of state empathy is obviously [F (1,63)=4.89,p=0.03) to the evaluation implicit aggression dimension, but not to the self implicit aggression.Conclusion:(1) Male and female in school are showing strong evaluation implicit aggression, and weak self implicit aggression generally.(2) The male’s evaluation implicit aggression is tronger than female’s, emotional empathy of female is significantly higher than male.(3)Overall, empathy and implicit aggression have negative correlational trend, the extent of negative correlation is more significant in female’s. Looking from the composition of empathy, cognitive and emotional empathy all have significantly negative correlation with the implicit aggression, but cognitive empathy shows more significant;(4) The level of state empathy have significantly effect on evaluation implicit aggression, but not on self implicit aggression.